Tulcard wrote:Grichuk swings through a heck of a lot of pitches. His power is intriguing. Always has been. He just has never found a way to be consistent in a good way. Unfortunately he trends in the opposite direction. Something just doesn't click with him/for him.

This is what I was thinking too, but from a quick glance at FanGraphs, his contact rates both inside and outside the strike zone are pretty similar in all 3 of his seasons.

He is taking a LOT more strikes now. I'm almost wondering if he is just overthinking at this point after being told he has to cut down on strikeouts.

“Our records make this a little more confusing than normal. We’re in it,” said John Mozeliak, who was promoted to president of baseball operations earlier this month. “The nuances of trying to determine how we think about improvement between now and July 31st still seems a bit unclear because of our inconsistencies. On any given night you could argue something and it would probably make perfect sense. In other words, let’s go out and add an eighth- or ninth-inning pitcher. Is that going to change our trajectory by the end of September? It could. But it could arguably not.

“The point is over the next (18) days we have to be open-minded and really be willing to explore anything that we can put on the table,” he added and leaned forward in his seat. “I wouldn’t want you leaving here thinking we’re not going to focus on this year.”

Also LHP Marco Gonzales has been traded to the Seattle Mariners for OF Tyler O'Neill.

O'Neill is hitting .244/.328/.479 with 19 HR in AAA this season. Hit .293/.374/.508 with 24 HR in AA last year, .260/.316/.558 with 32 HR in high A the year before. He was the Mariners' #2 prospect according to MLB.com and a consensus top-100 prospect.